Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter has lived many hustles in his lifetime and been successful at nearly all of them. Fashion, music, book publishing and even sports management—the multi-platinum rapper straight out of the Marcy Projects continues to show us why he’s not your typical Fortune 500 businessman, but in fact an actual business, man. His most recent partnership with Samsung screams volumes, with the mobile giant paying Jay $5 each for 1 million copies of his newly announced Magna Carta Holy Grail album, which will be available to a select group of Galaxy smartphone owners nearly 72 hours before its official release on Independence Day.
But with all the Twitter buzz surrounding his latest business partnership, it seems like the majority forget about Hov's massive influence on the tech game since the start of the Millennium. Well, allow us to reintroduce you to Jay-Z's Most Badass Tech Moments.
"Motorola Two-Way Page Me"
The Black Album on Nokia Phone
Jay's Personal HP Ad
The American Gangster Boycott on iTunes
D.O.A. (Death of Auto Tone)
The Life + Times Website Launch
Watch the Throne Samples Apollo 11 Launch
Jay + Ye = iTunes History
Microsoft Gets 'Decoded'
Jay-Z's Duracell Cameo
Executive Produces NBA 2K13 Game
Streams Last Barclays Center Concert on YouTube
Knicks Fans, Say Hello to the Bad Guy
Partners with Samsung on Magna Carta Holy Grail
Date: June 16, 2013
Buying out an entire commercial break during Game 5 of the NBA Finals, Samsung finally unveiled its reported multi-million-dollar partnership deal with Sean Carter. The TV ad, which featured production heavyweights Rick Rubin, Timbaland, Pharrell, and Swizz Beatz, served as nothing more than an official PSA for Jay’s upcoming album titled Magna Carta Holy Grail due out July 4th. The big homie caked $5 million on the deal and in exchange, Samsung gets 1 million free copies of the album that it'll offer for free via mobile app to the first million Galaxy owners in advance. That's good business.